I’ve played many roles at Freely Speaking Toast­mas­ters over the last twelve years, but I’ve never before chaired a contest.

Every spring, Toast­mas­ters runs the In­ter­na­tion­al Speech and Evaluation Contests. In the autumn, the Humorous Speech and Table Topics Contests are held. The contests are held in most clubs; each club’s winners advance to the area contests; thence to the division contest; and finally to the district contest.

I’ve par­tic­i­pat­ed in each of the contests in the past, making it to the area contests and oc­ca­sion­al­ly the division. I’m not competing this spring, so I’m going to run our club’s contest instead.

I sent this email to the members tonight:

I am the Contest Chair for our club contests in four weeks’ time. Do you have a desire to compete against other good speakers and evaluators? Do you want to hone a speech by delivering it to multiple ap­pre­cia­tive audiences? Do you want to fly the Freely Speaking Toast­mas­ters flag at the Area 31, Division C, or District 2 contests? And if you win the District 2 in­ter­na­tion­al speech contest (western Washington), you could po­ten­tial­ly go on to compete at the world level.

You may already be a good speaker or evaluator, but pushing yourself through the contests will make you better.

We need:

• Speech Con­tes­tants. You must have completed six speeches from the Competent Com­mu­ni­ca­tor manual before the contest. You must be a member in good standing (i.e., your dues are paid up). You deliver a 5–7 minute speech on a topic of your choosing.
• Evaluation Con­tes­tants. You must be a member in good standing. Everyone will evaluate a "target speaker" (a guest from another club). You all hear the same speech, retire to another room where you write notes for five minutes, then you are taken one at a time back into the contest room to deliver a 2–3 minute evaluation.
• Chief Judge, other Judges. At least three. You evaluate the con­tes­tants according to various criteria on the judge’s ballot.
• Ballot Counters. You count the results on the ballots.
• Timers. Green, Yellow, Red. You know the drill.
• Sergeants at Arms. Escort con­tes­tants, guard doors.
• Audience. Cheer wildly.

Interested? Email me.

Some links you may find helpful:

• https://www.toast­mas­ters.org/Leadership-Central/Speech-Contests
• https://www.toast­mas­ters.org/Leadership-Central/Speech-Contests/Speech-Contest-Tutorials
• Speech Contest Rulebook